Ed Stafford wrote:
I have a single-proc Octane at home that I've decided should be
running with Linux, but I have been reading up online about the
Experimental nature of the kernel in relation to the hardware. Since
most of the info I found was dated 2006, I wanted to ask your (as a
group) opinion on how stable / usable the Octane is today with the
current kernel.
I'm not adverse to bleeding edge, I just want to know whether or not
I'll be struggling on something that just doesn't have enough drivers
written for it to make it usable.
Just in case anyone asks, I'll probably be using Gentoo, but I'm not
glued to that distro. (I'm very agnostic and just prefer it to work
the best vs. distro-warring..)
Thanks a bunch!
Right now, Gentoo does have the best support for them (mine is running
2.6.23-rc5 about 3.5ft from me as I type). But I do believe the debian guys
have been working on a debian install image for them too (tbm/ths, am I right on
this?)
For the most part, Impact-based systems run great. You get X, unaccelerated, no
3D, and a framebuffer. VPro, framebuffer, but no X. USB kinda weorks if you
have a PCI-Card Cage and a OHCI chipsets (UHCI is dead last I checked), and I
think EHCI works fine. Haven't tried much else beyond those PCI devices.
A lot of the other XIO Boards, outside of the Impact or Vpro boards, are wholly
untested, and likely won't work at all. Nor do I think dual head will work if
you have a second Impact card kicking around.
For gentoo, we have an "RC6" livecd. I've played with building an RC7 several
times, but that got sidetracked about 2-3 months ago. I hope to resume work on
it soon. You can find that and the current netboots on your local gentoo
mirror, in the experimental/mips sub-folders.
Further gentoo questions regarding this system should be directed to the
gentoo-mips ML; linux-mips here is more for distro-agnostic development.
Have fun! (and what Proc, btw?)
--Kumba
--
Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead
"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere." --Elrond
